Over the years, I have blogged several times on the Appellate Division rejecting a trial court’s use of a formula to calculate alimony as opposed to a fulsome consideration of the statutory alimony factors. I blogged about...more
In Iowa, child and spousal support (alimony) amounts are mainly determined by each party’s income. But income is not the whole story. Parties may deduct certain qualified expenses, resulting in a lower income amount used in...more
We have recently encountered an issue where one former spouse is pursuing a reduction in alimony based upon a significant reduction in commissioned income. In exploring this issue, there is not a great deal of appellate...more
On June 30, 2023, Governor DeSantis signed landmark legislation, which made sweeping changes to Florida’s alimony laws. Similar attempts have failed in prior years, including a veto by DeSantis of the bill’s predecessor in...more
Many divorced clients ask if they can stop making alimony payments if they suspect their former spouse is cohabiting. The answer, simply, is it depends....more
Deadlines are commonplace in Marital Settlement Agreements negotiated incident to a divorce. In fact, most Orders from the Court contain time-sensitive obligations. But, what happens when someone misses that date or otherwise...more
The Massachusetts alimony statute provides that when alimony is set, the court shall exclude from the calculation gross income, which the court has already considered for setting a child support order. Effectively, this has...more
Non modifiable child support provisions are infrequent but do come up occasionally when parties are negotiating Property Settlement Agreements. It typically arises when a dependent spouse asserts that a certain level of...more
When the alimony statute was modified in 2014, aside from making 67 the presumptive, good faith retirement age, it also included multiple standards for the court to consider when a party sought to terminate or modify alimony...more
Six years, nine months and 7 days following the enactment of New Jersey’s amended alimony statute’s cohabitation provision on September 10, 2014 (N.J.S.A. 2A:32-23n) the New Jersey Appellate Division provided long awaited and...more
After a divorce or paternity matter ends, one or both parties may want to somehow modify the judgment. In a general sense, modifications occur in cases of child custody, child support, spousal support, or alimony. However,...more
We are living in tough times. With the pandemic we are facing increased unemployment. The loss of a job or decreased hours, can result in not being able to meet your court ordered support obligation....more
If you are watching the news you have some impression of what New Orleans must have been like in the hours before Hurricane Katrina hit. The Coronavirus storm is hitting New York City and the lower counties with a fury. The...more
In 2011, the Alimony Reform Act determined that alimony is “the payment of support from one spouse, who has the ability to pay, to a spouse in need of support for a reasonable length of time.” G.L. c. 208, §48. The...more
Spousal maintenance can be either modifiable or non-modifiable. Generally, when a spousal support order is the byproduct of an agreement between the spouses, after the divorce decree is entered, neither one of the parties or...more
In Perkins vs. Perkins, Division One of the Arizona Court of Appeals addressed the question of changed circumstances for the purposes of modifying a spousal maintenance order and what constituted ‘continuing’ (as opposed to...more
Appellate Court Advance Release Opinions: A prior appeal in this case concluded that the defendant, former husband, was entitled to seek modification of alimony and support when he voluntarily moved from Florida to...more